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At least five elephants were shot and stripped of their tusks in early April 2023 in southern Chad. Shocked by this wildlife crime, the organisation SOS Elephants of Chad is calling on the government to act firmly against the resurgence of poaching of Chad’s endangered elephants.

Four individuals involved in the illegal trafficking of four ivory tips were arrested on April 5 and 6, 2023 in Makokou, a town in northeastern Gabon. The elephant population in Gabon remains threatened despite regular ivory seizures by Water and Forestry agents. This observation has led civil society to explore actions upstream of the ivory trade process. In Gabon, efforts to fight crime related to protected wildlife species have just resulted in new arrests.

Police have confirmed the arrest of one of the five convicted rhino poachers who escaped from prison in Makhanda in October last year. "We can confirm the arrest and that he was involved in attempted poaching at one of the private game reserves," South African Police Service spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli told talk of the Town. Seven men escaped from Grahamstown Correctional Facility in October 2022. One of them, convicted poacher Trymore Chauke was arrested at Seven Fountains around 7pm on Sunday 23 October.

'An incredible story of courage and survival that has now been obliterated' is how wildlife veterinarian Dr William Fowlds has described the killing this week of two orphaned survivors of a 2016 rhino poaching incident at Sibuya Game Reserve. In a bitter blow to the rhino conservation community, two rhinos who mothers were killed by poachers seven years ago were themselves killed by poachers on Tuesday April 4.

The sentencing of six rhino poachers convicted in the Makhanda High Court just over a month ago will be postponed until four of them who escaped from prison are traced. Francis Chitiyo, Trymore Chauke, Simba Masinge , Nhamo Muyambo, and Abraham Moyane and Misheck Chauke were convicted for conspiracy to poach rhinos in the Makhanda High Court on 30 September 2022. They were due to be sentenced on Friday 4 November. Five of them escaped from the Waainek correctional facility in Makhanda in the early hours of 18 October, together with two other prisoners.

China ranked as the top market for rhino horns over the past decade, but the country has taken steps to crack down on smugglers, according to a report from the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), a non-profit foundation based in The Hague. From 2012 to 2021, nearly 9,600 rhinos were poached from across Africa and 7.5 tonnes (8.3 tons) of illegal horns were seized globally, the WJC said, citing its analysis of more than 670 seizures. According to the report released on Thursday, "the demand for rhino horns as a criminal commodity shows no signs of abating".

The future of the rhino is becoming increasingly bleak, despite efforts to combat poaching. According to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Save the Rhino International, South Africa, which is home to around 80% of the world's rhinos, has lost almost 75% of its rhino population in less than ten years. These figures were revealed on 22 September 2022, World Rhino Day.

The Gabonese authorities have just arrested an alleged wildlife trafficker. The latter was caught in the act of holding and selling about twenty kilograms of ivory. In Gabon, elephants are protected by the wildlife law in force.

Four people were arrested in the Kamanjab area after they were found with rhino horns.

According to police crime coordinator deputy commissioner Moses Simaho, the suspects were arrested after they tried to sell the scales to undercover officers at Epalela on Tuesday at 09:30. The pangolin products as well as cannabis were allegedly smuggled into the country from Angola without a permit from competent authorities in that country. "The two suspects have been arrested for possession of and dealing with controlled wildlife and dealing in prohibited dependence-producing drugs. We seized a bag containing cannabis whose value has not yet been determined and 2,22 pangolin…

The trial of six men facing rhino-poaching charges continued in the Grahamstown High Court this week. East London residents Francis Chitiyo, Trymore Chauke, Misheck Chauke, Simba Masinge and Nhamo Muyambo, and  Abraham Moyane were arrested in July 2018 during Operation Full Moon – the Eastern Cape Rhino Task Team’s code name for its anti-poaching operations. All six have since been in custody. They are accused on four counts.